Love thy Enemy
by Iceache
Summary: When the women of Booth's past start turning up dead, Brennan must race against the clock to catch a killer before he strikes again. With Booth unable to work the case, and more and more of Booth's past being unearthed Brennan must draw a line between her
1. The killing kind

It had been a fellow agent who had told him, approached him outside his office to let him know he was working on the case. The family had mentioned that they'd dated a long time ago and so naturally the agent had wanted him to be updated, at the very least, so that he might decide to pay his respects.

To say that he was shocked was an understatement and it wasn't long until he pulled up the case file and studied the notes. The notes indicated another murder, another girl from his hometown but he was strangely relieved to note that he didn't recognise her name.

He'd shown up at the funeral, dark glasses hiding his emotional eyes and a bunch of white lilies in his hand, her favourite from what he could recall. Her parents had embraced him and thanked him for coming, and long after everyone had left he remained by her graveside to pay his respects. He talked of the old days, his beat up Chevy and how she'd always crunched the gears when he let her drive it, he talked of skipping classes so that they could sneak off to the lake, and then he told her that he was sorry that he'd lost touch, that they'd drifted apart and that she would always hold a place in his heart.

At that, he laid the flowers on her grave and closed his eyes in silent prayer before walking away, leaving her to rest.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A couple of weeks later...

He knocked on her door tentatively and hung his head waiting for her to answer, and when she opened it her smile was enough to lift his spirits slightly. "Booth. Come in."

He accepted her invitation and wandered past her, she had a dishcloth slung over her shoulder and he picked up on an amazing smell that wafted through from the kitchen. "I'm sorry Bones, I didn't think that you would be eating... I don't want to interrupt."

"Don't be sorry, I was just thinking that I've made enough for a small army... besides, you've have to eat right?" He smiled at that, not just because of the well used phrase between them, but because she was making an effort and the idea of being in her company was lifting his mood.

She ushered him to sit and walked into the kitchen to begin dishing up. When she returned he had already poured them both a glass of wine, she smiled appreciatively as she laid his plate in front of him. His eyes widened at the sight of the food in front of him, "You cook Italian?"

She smiled and concentrated on piling her fork with food "I've been dabbling with it..."

As the first mouthful made it's way down his throat he smiled and cocked his head to the side to get her attention. "Well from the look and taste of things, it's more than just dabbling... this is amazing Bones... maybe even better than your mac and cheese."

She watched him cautiously as he took another bite, when he questioned her with his eyes, she let her fork rest on the plate. "What's going on?" His jaw clenched and he turned his focus to his plate.

She reached across the table and placed a soft hand on his wrist, his eyes changed focus to her hand and he let out a small sigh. "There's another body... I'm not on the case, but I know the girl."

She pulled her hand back from his wrist and he looked up to meet her eyes. "You dated her too?" He forced a grim smile and nods. "Who was she, when did you date?"

He ran a hand over his face and nodded toward her food. "I'm sorry about ruining your dinner.. I should go, we'll do this tomorrow." As he started to move from the table she placed a hand on his arm.

"No, you came here to talk, and I would really like to be here for you." Her earnest expression made him sigh in relief and she pushed him towards the sofa as she cleared the plates from the table. She returned with their forgotten glasses of wine and curled her legs under herself as she sank into the sofa. Booth dared not look at her and stared at the endless shelves of books.

"Claire was my girlfriend in College. We were inseparable, I thought that she was the most incredibly intelligent woman I had ever met, she was gunning for a high flying medical career and me... I just never saw myself as being good enough, I broke my own heart and hers when I told her I had joined the Army."

"You loved her." There was no accusation in her voice, no false pity, it was a statement. He nodded at her as he allowed his eyes to meet hers. "I'm sorry Booth... It must be hard to lose two women that you've loved within a few weeks of each other."

He shook his head and his eyes darkened. "Whoever this is, he's targeting women that I've dated... they won't let me on the case, I have no valuable information to contribute to the case, no idea who would be doing this.. I mean I've tried everything, everything except..." He'd looked at her nervously and she seemed confused for a second but then realisation dawned.

"You want me to work on the body..." Again no question, a statement. She let out a shuddery breath and looked at her hands awkwardly.

"I know what I'm asking here... I just want to make sure that this bastard is caught."

"Okay... I'll have a look."

He saw the reluctance, the hesitation... this case was too close to him, she didn't want to be the bearer of bad news... but his selfishness pushed her into it, he looked at his hands guiltily. "Thank you." He pushed himself to his feet and grabbed his jacket from the chair. "I'll contact the SAC and let them know your involvement... Night Bones."

She sighed when he left and bit her lip nervously...

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


	2. Draw the line

She had been dreading work, ever since she'd opened her eyes this morning, she'd taken longer than usual in the shower, longer than usual flicking through her daily paper and tried to spend longer than usual queuing in the early morning rush. When her car pulled into the Jeffersonian parking complex she sighed. The morning seemed to end quicker than usual, and she knew that it wouldn't be long until her unwelcomed body would come through the lab doors, and she knew that the body would probably bring Booth with it. She hadn't been looking forward to confronting Booth, but she knew that it was inevitable.

An hour or so later, the body arrived, and as she feared so did her partner. As he watched her expectantly she knew that she had to bite the bullet and lay down her ground rules. So with him hard on her heels, she turned and walked towards her office. She closed the door behind them and tried her best to avoid his eyes, his body language was already showing how defensive and cagey he was being. He crossed his arms and waited for her to speak. She allowed her eyes to flit to his quickly and then walked over to her desk.

"If I am going to do this, which seems likely now that the body is here, there have to be some rules."

She watched his jaw clenching and knew that he was trying to keep his anger in check. "Go on."

"Firstly, no one here knows, or will know, that you had a personal relationship with this woman, I would prefer to keep it that way... the last thing I need is Zack or Jack getting distracted, I want them to be focused 100 on this evidence. " She watches him cautiously for a reaction.

"And secondly?"

"Secondly... I can't have you hovering over me when I'm doing this one Booth. I want to help catch whoever did this, but on this occasion, I need you to keep your distance from the lab. I'll update you just as soon as we have any information, and you know that even then I shouldn't be... I know what this woman meant to you, and that, more than anything is my reason for needing you to stay away from here."

She could see the anger and the hurt that was storming behind his eyes, but he said nothing. Instead he shoved his hands in his pockets and nodded curtly. "When do you think you'll know anything?"

She smiled sympathetically and took a step towards him, as her hand reached out to touch his arm he flinched and recoiled from her slightly, it was barely noticeable, but enough to make her retract her comfort. He glanced towards the door and then refused to meet her eyes. "I'll see you when I see you then Bones." He was already out of the door by the time her exasperated sigh had dried up, already halfway out of the lab before she had a chance to go after him, so she didn't.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Zack was busy piecing the skeleton together as Brennan helped Jack to collect samples from the victim's clothing, Jack was talking, more for the sake of talking than anything else.

"So why do you think someone hacked this poor woman to death... I mean, she's probably not much older than you.. what kind of life do you think she was leading before this one?" Brennan continued to stare at the clothing in an attempt to locate more evidence.

"I'm not sure Jack... the same as all our victims... leading a life, loving, working... I don't know." She nodded at the clothing "I think that's everything visible. They are all yours."

"Oh goody, I love a good slaughter victim's clothing." He started placing the items in a plastic bag to transport them to his office.

She was ready to pull him up on his comment, but in an attempt to maintain a distance from the victim, a distance from Booth's ex girlfriend's body that was lying on her table, she let it slide. Instead, she moved over to Zack who was placing the final bone. "Good work Zack... any thoughts?"

Zack looked to his mentor and then back to the body pointing to the cadaver's neck... "There are marks on C1 and C2 vertebrae... some sort of blunt rubbing perhaps? I'm not entirely sure yet but it doesn't seem consistent with the way in which this body was hacked, for the lack of a better term... I'll run the hack marks through the system and see if I can come up with an instrument that might have created this type of trauma and I'll compare the rubbings to this... All I can say for certain is that she was hacked post mortem."

Brennan nods solemnly... "Have a look at the skull Zack, tell me if there are any fractures or sign of trauma, I want to get that to Angela as soon as possible." He nodded as she exited the platform and headed to her office, once inside she closed the door behind her and closed the blinds. Closing her eyes, a sigh escaped her lips. She moved to her desk and lowered herself into the chair cautiously, the manila folder in front of her would contain all of the information that she needed regarding the crime scene and how the body was identified as being that of Claire Massey. She rubbed a hand over her face before flicking it over and leaning her head on her hand as she perused the contents. _Found with all personal effects... __shallow__ grave... __parents__ identified clothing..._There was a picture of Claire inside the file, young, blonde, beautiful and happy.. standing outside her college in her graduation gown. A sadness had filled her, knowing that Booth had lost another person that he loved. She laid her forehead on her desk and closed her eyes knowing that she had to focus, for Booth's sake, and because she shouldn't be with holding details of the case from the rest of her team... they had every right to know that Booth and this woman had been involved, and while it may have motivated them to work faster, she knew that she couldn't risk that speed equalling a mistake that could lose the bastard that did this. Her head hurt.

It was Angela's gentle shake that woke her, and as she raised her head slowly from the desk it was Angela's gentle smile that had startled her into realising that she had slept. "You okay sweetie?"

"What time is it?... I can't believe I fell asleep, I just had a headache"

"It's a little after four thirty.."

Brennan jumped to her feet and looked at her watch as if to ensure that Angela wasn't wrong about the time. "The skull... I need..."

Angela held a sketch pad out to Brennan and smiled. "We decided to leave you sleeping, Zack did the markers... he did a good job, I don't think I've ever done a face as quickly as this one." Brennan stared at the face in front of her before cautiously taking the sketch from Angela. Angela watched her curiously. "You ok Bren?"

"Yeah..." She cleared her throat. "It's definitely our victim." Angela nodded. "Thanks Ange, I'll be out in a second."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

She'd told them all to go home early, expecting to stay on herself, but it wasn't long until being alone in the same room as the skeleton of Booth's past that she decided she too would leave the office behind her for the day. When she got home though she regretted her decision immediately. Angela called and told her to turn on the news, it wasn't long until she understood why.

She watched the reporter standing in the dark, blue and red flashes in the background and rain pounding on his umbrella _"A young lawyer was found dead in a hotel room earlier this evening, sources state that this woman was under the protective custody of the local authorities__ as a result of an ongoing murder investigation__, Tessa Banks' body was discovered when her bodyguard entered her room to make a routine check. An FBI spokesperson has advised us that the bodyguard never once abandoned his post according to CCTV footage, and investigation is taking place."_

She closed her eyes and sank into her chair. Angela asked after Booth and Brennan advised that she would take care of it as she heard the knock at her door.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

**What are you thinking so far? I know it's ****kinda**** slow just now, but I need to build the background up a little.**


	3. The Knife Twists

She got to her feet slowly and took a deep breath before closing the distance to her door, she didn't need to look through her view hole to know that it was him, she knew he'd be upset, but the sight that met her was more than she had expected.

His eyes were red and streak marks lined his cheeks, his eyes never once lifted from the ground to meet her own, he simply stared at the ground just past the threshold of her door. She felt numb for a second and fear seemed to grip her, but then she reached out and pulled him into her apartment by the lapel of his rumpled suit jacket. As he crossed into her apartment he all but fell into her arms, she wrapped her arms around him and pushed the door shut with her foot, as he cried into her shoulder and neck she whispered words of comfort and condolence that she wasn't sure she truly believed, it didn't matter though because she was certain that he didn't hear a word. Minutes or hours had passed before she realised that he was deathly silent, his breathing calm and even and yet his grip on her hadn't loosened, biting her lip before releasing her grip on him he too responded and began to move back. When his eyes met her she could see the guilt, the hurt and the confusion spill from them, she hoped that he could see the concern mirrored in her own. She pulled him towards her bedroom and when she looked at him she could see a panic in his eyes, she simply smiled and shook her head. "You need to rest Booth, we'll talk when you are rested. I'll be here." He went to protest but she held a finger up in warning. "Sleep first." He nodded in acquiescence. She moved him to the bed and then pulled an old oversized shirt from her dresser, it was old and grey and had obviously had years of use. "An old boyfriend's from college."

One side of his mouth lifted slightly and he nodded, when she handed it to him he held her hand longer than needed and when she looked into his eyes she could see a silent thank you in them. She smiled and left the room, closing the door behind her. Outside her bedroom door she paused and massaged the back of her neck letting out a quiet sigh. This was going to be tough on him, she knew that, and she also knew that seeing him hurt was going to affect her in some strange way.

As he slid under her covers, the events of today seemed to disappear from his mind, his eyes were heavy and he quickly marvelled at how she had known what he needed, she always knew what he needed, his last thought was of how her pillows smelled just like her and then he drifted into the blackness.

He awoke to the smell of coffee and something else that he couldn't quite place, he rubbed a hand over his face and into his hair as he waited for the grogginess to dissipate, after a few minutes he slid out of the bed and pulled his dress pants on. When he left the room to find her she was standing at the stove cooking pancakes. He smiled sheepishly as his stomach growled and she turned to greet him with a smile. "Hey."

"How did you sleep?"

"Yeah, yeah really good thanks... I think your pancakes woke me up."

She looked to the pan and back to him apologetically. "Sorry, I didn't think..."

"The smell Bones, the smell woke me, guess I was hungry enough that they could lure me out of sleep."

She smiled gently and grabbed a mug from the counter, pouring a fresh cup of coffee for him she laid it in front of him "Grab a seat, I'll just be a sec." He pulled up a stool to the breakfast bar and watched her contentedly over his mug. She was good at this, caring for him, and he knew that she'd brush it off as nothing... but it meant something to him and he was grateful to have her here at a time like this.

They ate their pancakes in relative silence, there was no need to speak, they were comfortable like this. When they'd both finished eating, he picked up their plates and moved them to the sink as she wandered back to the sofa in the lounge. He followed behind her and sat across from her, eyes suddenly sad as he realised that his secure bubble was about to burst, now that he needed to talk to her about Tessa. She tried to smile sympathetically at him but he could feel the tears welling up behind his eyes, burning hot with rage and guilt. He couldn't get the words past the lump that had formed in his throat and she seemed to sense his difficulty so she broke the silence first.

"You've made arrangements for Rebecca and Parker?"

He was grateful for the reprieve "Yes, I've sent them far enough away from here... a little vacation if you will."

"Good, I think that you'll be more help to the case if you aren't worrying about your family. I'm glad that they are safe, that nothing happened to them before you were able to make arrangements."

She sounded so clinical, but he knew that she was struggling to ensure that she was objective in this case, and he knew that he was threatening that objectivity. "I've made arrangements for all of them... The Bureau needed a list of all the women I've dated. I spent this morning giving statements, SAC Johnson has asked me to be part of the task force, not in the field, purely research and checking the files. Guess he just wants me to let them know if anything rings a bell."

"And does it?"

"No... I only really got to skim the files and then I heard about... " His eyes dropped to his hands and her face fell in understanding. "It's my fault.. all of this, I should never have..."

"What? Never have what? Allowed yourself to love... Kept your defences up and not let anyone near you." She had almost laughed.

"Seems to work for you Bones.." When he looked up he almost regretted it, she looked hurt and he hadn't meant for that statement to seem harsh. "I didn't mean that like it sounded."

"You're right, I do shut myself off, and maybe I keep them at arm's length, but it doesn't mean that no one gets hurt Booth... this is not your fault. Whoever is doing this is sick, and obviously either obsessed by you or insanely jealous." He nodded solemnly. "I have a meeting with SAC Johnson tomorrow morning. He wants to talk to me about you and you're involvement in this case."

"Yeah I thought that he would."

"I've got to present him with my findings by the end of the day." She looked at him cautiously. "Maybe you could help me with those findings"

"You want to know about Tessa..." She nodded and he clenched his jaw. "I thought I'd taken measures to protect these women, Cam, Rebecca, Tessa... I thought they'd be safe."

"This isn't your fault." She placed a hand on his cautiously. "Blaming yourself isn't going to catch whoever did this Booth." She watched his eyes lift from her hand on his to hers and something passed behind them, she couldn't read the emotion after all that wasn't her strength in this partnership. "Where are the files?"

"In the car... I'll go get them." He sat for another beat before pushing himself to his feet and heading for the door. As the door closed behind him she allowed the breath that she'd been holding to release. She felt so connected to Booth, she felt like she was feeling what he was feeling... she knew that that wasn't possible, that he was feeling the pain acutely and that she was simply hurting for her friend who seemed to be being dragged into a dark place without any reason or choice.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sorry they are so short and that it's taking a while to update... busy busy time at work.


End file.
